


an enigma

by bubblewrapstargirl



Category: Captain America (Movies), Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Half-Blood Steve Rogers, M/M, Muggleborn wizard!Bucky, Obscurus (Harry Potter), Obscurus!Bucky Barnes, Squib!Steve Rogers, Witch!Sarah Rogers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-13
Updated: 2017-02-14
Packaged: 2018-09-24 02:19:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9695435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bubblewrapstargirl/pseuds/bubblewrapstargirl
Summary: Adventures of wizard!Bucky and Squib!Steve in 20s NYC. Newt will be involved.





	1. Chapter 1

Sarah Rogers might not be the most gifted witch of her age, but she excells at Charms, and the healing of magical maladies with poltices and potions. The muggles she cares for never notice if their healing creams glow suspiciously bright before she administers them. She has a reputation for a calming presence that can sooth the most distressed patient. None of them ever the wiser to her Relaxing Charm or Calming Draught. She inhereted her gifts from her grandfather, who was a wizard of great reknown, for his inventive healing potions. An avid herbologist, his magical garden was burnt down after his death, when her parents moved into his cottage. The locals had tolerated him, as a pillar of the community, treasured for his old wisdom. But the muggles had grown in number in the local village and could not tolerate the eccentric ‘occult’ family that had encroached into their peace. After that incident, Sarah took the salvation that fate delivered her, in the form of the dashing Joey Rogers, on his way to the New World. She left the Old Country behind with her heart fragile but open, and didn’t look back.

She did not expect Joey to go to war and leave her with two small boys, and then lose her youngest son a few scant years after. Even less anticipated was the lack of magical coherence in America. She keeps her status as a witch hidden from MACUSA, having never registered her entry into the country. Luckily she learned beforehand that marriage between magical humans and muggles is outlawed, and even punishable with jail time. Her lovely Joey would have been Obliviated, and apparently her Steve too, when he came of age, since his magic is so small as to be negligible. She is unsurprised that no letter from Ilvermony School comes for her Steve.  A half-blooded wizard could never truly be considered a squib, as the physiology of a person with immediate magical heritage is different from that of a non-magical person, but Steve certainly qualifies for the title. Still, he has a natural immunity to certain ailments, abilities that all witches and wizards have inherited through magical tampering with their genetic code thousands of years ago, such as high fertility.

Sarah's capacity for curiosity has always been high, and her zest for life even more so. She and Steve have a good life, magic or no. But there is no denying it is enhanced by the presence of Bucky Barnes, who stumbles into their world one day by chance. Steve thrilled to present his mother with the confused muggleborn wizard who can conjure clouds.

Thankfully the child’s Obscurus had only just started to develop, a whisp of congealing black matter that dissipates for good under Sarah’s gentle hand. Bucky is a quick study; bright and happy to learn once he no longer feels abnormal and alone. The magical community believes the teaching of spells to be the remit of schools alone, and thus their children only emit accidental magic before their formal education. Sarah holds no truck with that, and though she sets aside a small amount each month toward a wand when Bucky is old enough, its a fund she keeps having to dip into for Steve’s medicines. Bucky is adept at wandless magic though, mastering simple charms and even basic transfiguration many years before he will need to consider Ilvermony supplies.

Sarah had worried that Steve would be jealous of Bucky’s abilities - there are already so many things other children can do that he can’t. But she needn’t have worried. Steve doesn’t have a resentful bone in his body and couldn’t be prouder of Bucky. Steve can do instinctual  magic with no incantation with some considerable skill, but magical words refuse to heed him. But with instinctual magic that still occurs even into his teenage years, she knows his heritage will protect him, if there are ever times that Bucky, or his own fists, aren’t enough.

She was right to be concerned for their future, as she feels herself growing weaker, her potions no longer enough to prolong her life. But she no longer worries about her boys. Bucky has formal educators at Ilvermony to look out for his development, and they have each other for everything else. They’ll do just fine, she’s sure.


	2. Chapter 2

Bucky knows there is something strange about him before he is old enough to quantify it in words. Often, he can feel the world around him almost like an extension of himself, the hum of energy in every living thing like a bright spot of light in the night sky against the backdrop of the dark, inanimate features of the world. He doesn’t understand why he’s drawn to certain spots in the city, only that his feet lead him there in a daze, and he wakes to find himself surrounded by unsavoury characters. It’s the dark, gloomy spaces that reel him in, a helpless chum dragged in on a reel, by tendrils of energy he can’t explain. As he grows older he begins to focus on what exactly is calling out to him, though the diversity of items brings more questions with no answers. Necklaces on molls in speakeasies, a book in the backroom of a club, Mrs Romero’s flowers, piano keys in the hotel restaurant, reheeled soles on any shoe that leaves from the cobbler on the avenue.

Of course, once Sarah begins to teach him, Bucky learns that all these things were magical artifacts. He has no particular talent for sniffing out magical instruments once he becomes a part of wizarding New York, submerged as he is in a world saturated with magic. Mrs Rogers explains it to him with her best guess; that any muggleborn child would be susceptible to the whispers of enchantments and magical substances. That a world sterile of magic would leave his own magic frightened, desperately calling out to be reunited with anything with a recognisable essence. 

All those distasteful places he found himself were part of the underground magic scene, where Sarah gets her ingredients for Steve’s medication. There are plants which grow with little interference in any weather that can feed a family of five; the speakeasies of magical New York are the only places to barter for those life saving seeds. Sarah makes huge batches of stew, sharing it with anyone in the neighbourhood in need, in exchange for a sack of potatoes, or a freshly caught fish. In 20s Brooklyn, folks take care of one another.

Bucky is good at fixing spells. He can tinker with anything and use non-verbal wandless magic to feel the cracks and broken places in his mind, an extra sensory perception of how the pieces are misaligned. His mother loves it; nothing seems to break when Bucky handles it, and she clucks about getting him more specialised work than construction or at the docks with his Pa. Old Simmons the clockmaker would take him on as an apprentice maybe, a man with no sons of his own to take on the business when he’s too frail. 

But Bucky has no plans to leave Ilvermony prematurely. He’s a day boarder, but sticks around for dinner most nights, to ease off the pressure at home. He shoots up like a beanpole from all the good food. He tinkers with a casserole dish and lid to make it shrinkable, and uses the Featherweight Charm to make it light enough to sit in his bag, then sneak home food for Steve. The House Elves are accommodating once Bucky explains the situation, careful not to mention that Steve is a Squib. He’s learnt that wizarding folk are more likely to look kindly on a wizard too sickly to come to school than one unfortunate enough to wield nothing more than instinctual defensive magic. Sarah appreciates the extra food, especially on nights when she has to work and Steve is left to fend for himself.

Bucky drags Steve to wizarding Brooklyn whenever he can. Tapping on the right bricks with his wand reveals hidden doors to clubs where they can mingle with sentient magical creatures, like goblins and the centaur that owns the tobacco joint where you can get all kinds of illicit herbs. Together their well-worn shoes clatter down the cobbles of muggle streets where the no-majs sleep, blissfully unaware of the marvel that lies beneath their feet. Bucky has no interest on embarking on an adventure that Steve can’t follow. They belong together; the magical boy from a mundane family, and the non-magical child born from this wondrous culture.  



End file.
